As explained in the parent application, numerous biometric hand geometry methods exist or have been proposed for verifying the identity of persons. Each method has its drawbacks. The patent literature describes numerous forms of hand geometry apparatus which generally use guides (e.g. posts, grooves, raised plates) to physically constrain the hand and fingers into prescribed positions which are not user friendly. The present invention stems from work to develop an apparatus, see U.S. Pat. No. 5,073,950 issued 17 Dec., 1991 and assigned to the assignee of this application, which relies on measuring length, width and shape (contour) of four fingers. The present invention is also an improvement on grip-type hardware disclosed in the parent application.
To avoid using physical restraints, such as guide posts, that patented apparatus uses a mathematical algorithm is disclosed in said U.S. Pat. No. 5,073,950 and used to realign or normalize the images of the four fingers to for differences in finger spread and palm orientation between the template image and the profile image, as defined below. While this normalizing or remapping process is effective, to the great relief of the users, the computational overhead can cause a delay of several seconds in the accept/reject (decision) time. This limits the apparatus to low traffic applications. A desire to avoid forcing the fingers into awkward positions, and to avoid mathematically remapping the finger images, gave rise to the present invention. The decreased and simplified verification time results in a system usable in high traffic applications.
The novel system (method and apparatus) described herein can prevent an unauthorized individual from gaining access to a restricted zone. It also can prevent an imposter from fraudulently transacting business by posing as another person.